Saturday, July 20, 2019

Donald W. Wuerl Et al. on Eucharistic Worship and Adoration


As many know, I have been researching a forthcoming volume on sacramental theology, with a focus on baptism and the Eucharist. One issue that will be discussed in the volume will be the development of Eucharistic Adoration (the giving of the highest cultic [latria] devotion to consecrated hosts). One recent work I read on this issue gives us the following information (including an admission it is a “gradual development”):

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Faith in the enduring presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament prompted the gradual development of devotions to Christ in the Eucharist even apart from Mass.

In the earliest centuries of the Church the chief reason for preserving the Sacred Species was to assist those unable to attend the liturgy, especially the sick and the dying. The Sacrament of the Lord was reverently taken to them so that they too could communicate.

With the passage of time, reverent reflection led the Church to enrich its Eucharistic devotion. Faith that Jesus is truly present in the sacrament led believers to worship Christ dwelling with us permanently in the sacrament. Wherever the sacrament is, there is the Christ who is our Lord and our God; hence He is ever to be worshiped in this mystery (cf. Pope Paul VI, Encyclical, Mysterium Fidei [September 3, 1965] nn. 56-62). Such worship is expressed in many ways: in genuflections, in adoration of the Eucharist, in the many forms of Eucharistic devotion that faith has nourished.

In the thirteenth century, when the charisms of saints like Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas had intensified the Church’s gratitude for the enduring presence of Jesus, the feast of Corpus Christi (“Body of Christ”) was established. The popularity of this feast, with its joyful hymns and public processions, encouraged further developments of Eucharistic devotion.

The Blessed Sacrament is at times removed from the tabernacle in which it is ordinarily kept, and placed upon the altar for adoration. Usually the Host is placed in a monstrance, so that the Sacred Species can be seen by the faithful adoring their present but unseen Lord. These periods of exposition are sometime extended into the Holy Hours. Catholic parishes often celebrate Eucharistic Days, or the Forty Hours Devotion, in which the Sacrament is exposed upon the altar continuously for a full day or longer, to intensify the Eucharistic life of the parish. When such exposition is terminated, the priest raises the Sacred Host before the people in blessing. From this closing act has come the name “Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.”

In some dioceses and certain religious communities perpetual adoration is maintained before the continuously exposed Host. But every Catholic Church is a place in which the faithful are invited to worship the present Christ. Visits to the Lord in the tabernacle are still another form of devotion to the Real Presence that the Church warmly commends (cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction, Eucharisticum Mysterium [May 25, 1967] part III).

Since the latter half of the nineteenth century, Eucharistic Congress have drawn Catholics to international gatherings marked by liturgical functions, conferences, and other events. All these are designed to render our united gratitude and praise or the Father’s great gift to us in this life: His beloved Son present among us under the appearances of bread and wine. (Ronald Lawler, Donald W. Wuerl, and Thomas Comerford Lawler, eds. The Teaching of Christ: A Catholic Catechism for Adults [Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1976], 437-38)

I have addressed this and other important issues relative to the Catholic Mass elsewhere, including the listing of articles at: